Matthew 7:7-11

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who ask will receive, he who seeks finds and he who knocks the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, gives him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish gives him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask?"



Here in Matthew we see and invitation to seek after God. He wants us to call out for him, but if we never ask we will never receive. God promises to provide for His children, all we have to do is simply ask for His help. Is that not something simply incredible? The God of the universe is willing to provide for us, to help us out throughout life? We must remember though that when asking for things that we are open to Gods will for what he has planned for us in our lives. Often times we pray for things of great material value: better house, better job, more money, etc. When we do not receive the things that we are asking for we get discouraged, often thinking: "God tells us to ask and he will give us what we want, yet here I am still poor and in need.". Instead of focusing on thing like this we need to step back and think: are the things we are praying for going to take us further away from God? God wants to provide for us, to lead us toward Himself, he has a plan for us we just need to be 100% willing to except what that plan may be. We need to ask GOD for it though, the one true God!
Do me a favor say a prayer:
Dear:__insert what ever you make a false idol today (money, possessions, job, family) here____,
please help me I need you more then ever.
Amen

Now give it a week.....were your prayers answered? Is whatever we are putting before God helping you, leading you, answering your prayers? We need to start putting God in control of our lives. Often times we want to be in control of everything, we want full control over our lives, but God tells us he wants us to trust in Him ALWAYS! We will always be there for us, and yes when we are at the very lows of lows He welcomes us with loving embrace but we also wants to to long for him even in the best of times. God is not a pain killer that we take to get the pain to go away every so often, He is our Father. He is the one who died for our sins. Long for him! Search for Him! Discover him! Love Him!

Often times I find myself trying to do things on my own. I have this trust in God that others seem to look down upon, but at the same it is a trust that can been depend 1000 times more. God continuously tells us to trust in Him, and long for Him. Often times now I find myself deep inside my thoughts calling out to the Lord for help. Between trying to figure out the transition into adulthood, home life, work life, bills and everything else that falls in-between Christ tells us that he is the answer to any and all problems. I challenge you, just as I challenge myself to long after God. To have a genuine relationship with him. To trust in him. He is our father.....do we not run to our parents to help us out in any situation that we are thrown into? I know I sure do, I can't tell you the number of times I have gone to my mom and dad or aunt and uncle to help bail me out of a situation, or lead me to where I should be going. Should we not do the same with our Heavenly Father? He are to run to him. He wants us....he loves us....he cares for us. I challenge you this week to look at your relationship with him. Is it what you want it to be. Are you knocking at the door? Are you running toward God? He's waiting for you....

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

Philippians 4:12-13

I know what it is to be in need, and I known what it is to have plenty, I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, weather living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.



In this passage we see the answer to all of our problems. Often time I find myself saying "Life sucks", "I can never to do this!", "I just don't have enough!". But here we see the answer to all of life's many problems. Through Christ we can have all the strength that we may need. Wether we are hungry, stressed, depressed, worried about money, Christ will help us through all of our problems.
I have gotten to a point of learning that the Lord will always provide when we just put our trust in Him. Out of the 1000 of life lessons that I have learned at living at home with my aunt, uncle and cousins one of the most important ones is: God provides in every aspect of our lives. Granted we are to be proactive in our lives but through Christ we have all the strength that we need to preserver!
As I begin to transfer into that "adult" phase of life I have had to worry about everything from work, bills, rent, money, and the list goes on and on. One of the biggest problems when growing up and moving away from home is money. I got to have to opportunity to help a friend start a new life and get an apartment with my best friends. The problem is that we are on to totally different sides of the spectrum when it comes to trusting in the Lord. As we got two weeks out to the big move, we didn't have an apartment (we thought ours had been offered to somebody else), had $500 between the two of us, her jobs had not gone through, and things were not looking good. Daily phones conversation tended to go like this: "Dude just trust in God it will all work out." "How can I not freak out?!". Although life is stressful for time to time the Lord has a plan, we got the apartment we wanted, acquired more then enough money, she got both jobs she needed and life worked itself out....correction GOD WORKED EVERYTHING OUT!
Although countless times God has provided for all of us, we still have the doubt in our hearts. This week I challenge you, and this may be my hardest challenge, to just trust in the Lord and see where He takes you in life. You may be quit surprised in how much happier you will be in life when you are not stressing over the simple things in life. God will always provide for those who trust in him! Go to him! Run to him! Trust in him!

I pray for you and your walk in Christ